Dear Prospective 8th Grade Student, St. Joseph School is an awesome place to be as an 8th grader. There are so many activities and opportunities going on during this year. In addition, we work hard to prepare for moving into high school next year. We take our role as leaders within the St. Joseph community very seriously. We have weekly leadership sessions which include a “You Tube” video and group discussions. We look to be role models for all our fellow students and leave a legacy of faith and love. Some of our leadership opportunities include:

Leading the all school Rosary each month.

Leading the all-school prayer services.

Praying a blessing over each classroom for the year.

Being hosts/hostesses for special occasions and feast days.

Reading on the intercom for the weekly Quiz Bowl.

Being a role model and leader on our sports teams.

Some of our unique 8th grade activities include:

Being “Reading Buddies” with the 1st grade students where we meet each week and engage in a special activity with them.

Hosting the Annual Craft Fair which reaches out to our community and beyond.

Performing lead roles in the Christmas play at the all school Pageant.

Participating in Honors Band and Choir.

Taking a field trip to WITC to give us some ideas of what our future may hold.

Performing in the Spring Musical.

We travel to different teachers for each of our classes (Religion, Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Phy-Ed, Music and Art). We work hard as we prepare for moving to the high school. We schedule our classes at the high school with the help of our core teachers. We enjoy a special time at the end of the year designed to wrap up our career at St. Joseph School. We have a banquet given in our honor by the 7th grade class. We take a field trip to HuntHill for a special retreat. We are honored at a special graduation ceremony. We celebrate with a 2-day class trip to a place of our choosing. Some of the highlights from our 8th grade core classes are:

Religion: During the 8th grade year, you have a different Religion class each quarter, each taught by a different middle school teacher. They are: Moral Decision Making, Social Justice Issues, Family Life 8 and World Religions.

Science: In 8th grade science we will begin to prepare you for high school sciences as we study an introduction to physics, do an extensive research project on a bird, and study cells and heredity. We do a lot of fun activities in the heredity unit when we study genetics. Why are your eyes the same color as your mothers? Are you color blind like your grandfather? We will answer these questions and also study how your DNA makes you the unique person you are!

Language Arts: You will gain a greater understanding of grammar, improve your vocabulary, increase your reading comprehension, sharpen your writing skills and gain confidence with public speaking. A privilege of middle school is that when we do silent reading, you are allowed to take a rocker or a beanbag and put it anywhere in the room while reading. One of the major fun projects in Language Arts is the joint research project with Science on "The Bird Project."

Social Studies: We explore more modern history than any of the other grades. We learn about the breakup of the British Empire and also the Cold War Era. One of favorite topics that we cover in the 8th grade is the Civil Rights movement. We will also cover the Vietnam War in 8th grade. It’s a blast!.....from the not-so-distant-past.

Math: We are learning at a high school pace. Our classroom is split into groups that include both pre-algebra and algebra. Students work at an independent level within our groups with our teacher as a guide. Students are expected to take control and responsibility for our own learning under the watchful eye of the teacher. The most enjoyable projects include testing probabilities and finding slope in real life.

Thank you for visiting our webpage to see what we are all about. We would love to show you first-hand what life is like as an 8th grader at St. Joseph School. So, please join us and hang out for a day. Blessings, Mrs. Nielsen, 8th Grade Homeroom Teacher, Middle School Math and Computer Teacher

Science experiments are always fun!

The 8th grade science/language arts "Bird Project" is a major research project for the school year.

More examples of the "Bird Research Project" including some of the posters and dioramas created by 8th Grade Students.